The Importance of Rest

The Importance of Rest

– You’ve heard of the phrase ‘work hard, play hard’ right? It’s all well and good burning the preferable candle at both ends but sooner or later it’s going to catch up with you. So how about trying, ‘work hard, play hard & rest hard’?

Giving the body the right amount of rest to regenerate, repair and replace is just as much needed as the workout and training you put so much effort into in the first place.

Max started training from the age of 7, now 16 years later Max trains 35 hours over a 6 day week. Commitment and dedication like that is hard on the body both physically and mentally making time for rest and relaxation even more essential.

Max Whitlock

Setting time aside to rest & recover is critical to Max’s training performance, indeed even if you’re not a professional athlete like Max rest & recovery is still just as important for a variety of reasons.

It’s physically necessary so that the muscles can repair, rebuild and grow – not resting enough can lead to over-training which in turn can lead to poor performance and a training plateau as well as increasing the risk of injury. Psychologically it can contribute to depression and lack of focus, as well as affecting the quality and duration of your sleep.

What’s the Difference between Rest & Recovery?

A rest day is just that, no exercise at all, avoiding any strenuous tasks. Spend time with your family & friends, relax on the sofa watching movies or playing video games, sleep in and enjoy a guilt free rest day – in the case of Max, he’s earned it and so have you. Between work, home and training commitments having a rest day scheduled into your weekly calendar is your time to ‘Rest Hard’.

Recovery on the other hand, also known as an ‘active rest day’ can be broken down into two types.

Immediate or short-term recovery. This can include medium intensity strength training or low-no impact cardio such as cycling or swimming. Whatever you do it has to be the ‘opposite’ of what you are training during the week. For example a runner would do medium intensity weight training, a gymnast would do some low-no impact cardio exercise. The idea behind it is that these activities will aid in your overall performance on those active days without taxing the body.

Long-term recovery. This refers to refers to recovery periods that are built into a seasonal training schedule and can include days or even weeks as part of your yearlong training plan.

Optimal recovery includes both complete rest and active recovery.

When designing a training program, make sure that rest and recovery is not overlooked and you’ll be hitting those work hard, train hard goals a whole lot easier.

About Max Whitlock

Max is part of Team GB and will be competing at the Rio Olympics this summer. He’s an accomplished gymnast, in 2012, he was part of the first British men’s gymnastics team to win the European Championships – the first British men’s team to win a medal at an Olympic games in 100 years.

He won bronze in 2012 London Olympics and silver in the 2013 World Championships. In 2015 Max became the first British man to ever win a World Championship gold medal.

Max is working with DFS, an official partner for Team GB, which acknowledges the importance of relaxation and home which is why they’ve unveiled The Britannia- the centre piece of The British House, the official home of Team GB in Rio.

If you want to know more about DFS, you can check out their Twitter and Instagram page.